Windows 10: Flaws found in Intel Management Engine (ME), TXE and SPS

Called and got off the phone awhile ago with Acer support and the gist of my conversation with them is; If my machine is out of warranty I have to pay for support. Pay for support?? I guess the poor bstrds that own an acer are in the same boat.

The rep asked for my last name and told me what phone number I was calling from, I said oh! you must have caller ID do you know how many children I have? There was no sequence of asking for credit card numbers but if I receive a bill from acer for their "support" I am going to be very upset!

I told the guy all I need is information on if and when acer might be placing the file on their website so I can D/L the patch and fix it myself because my model (DX4831 (see near bottom)) is not listed, and he replied "you will have to pay for support", I said what?
Acer already has patches to D/L for free except my model and that's why I'm calling, do you know if my DX will be included? All the other manufacturers are placing the patch on their websites for free like yours and the user fixes their machines themselves why do I have to pay to talk to you, I guess to be fair I can see how information and support can be construed as one and the same, but in my thinking this is BullS.

No matter how I tried to explain my predicament to the rep his only response was; I have to pay for support.

Stay tuned, If I do get a bill from acer it will be a Merry Freaking Christmas!

Holy crap, I thought Lenovo's bad labeling of their patches causing me to get sidetracked downloading the wrong one (I eventually scrounged around their site a bit more and found the one I needed) was awful. Having to pay for them just to answer one question that should be common knowledge is low.

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I have a bad taste in my mouth about acer and I don't know about powerspec but I have a new-found respect for HP, check back a few posts to #118, Kado's HP's already been updated. Follow his conversation with Wynona through to Kado's #125 post.

To be fair my HP lappy is only a month old so it should be well supported.

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I have a bad taste in my mouth about acer and I don't know about powerspec but I have a new-found respect for HP, check back a few posts to #118, Kado's HP's already been updated. Follow his conversation with Wynona through to Kado's #125 post.

Dell had been updated, too. Not rubbing it in, just a mention. Dell is notorious for being the "Slow Boy" fixing things. Might want to try an email inquiry to the people at Acer, that usually is not charged for.

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Yesterday afternoon I flashed the MEI FW myself being fed up with waiting for the OEM to put it on their support pages for my machine.
It's not something I'd encourage end users to do as you have to know exactly what FW you have as it can't be easily undone.
Still, the flash routine will check if the FW file is the right one, if not it won't go through with it.
The TPM module needed flashing as well and that took some doing before it was finally successful....

Cheers,

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Holy crap, I thought Lenovo's bad labeling of their patches causing me to get sidetracked downloading the wrong one (I eventually scrounged around their site a bit more and found the one I needed) was awful. Having to pay for them just to answer one question that should be common knowledge is low.

That reminds me, I have two lenovo laptops that will need to be updated, thanks for relating the need to be thorough.

kado897 said:

To be fair my HP lappy is only a month old so it should be well supported.

Understood. My reference to HP was from the early 2000's and before HP was in turmoil around 2010. On its own the turmoil was enough to turn me off of HP.

f14tomcat said:

Dell had been updated, too. Not rubbing it in, just a mention. Dell is notorious for being the "Slow Boy" fixing things. Might want to try an email inquiry to the people at Acer, that usually is not charged for.

No offense taken, I have already sent them an email and await their response.

fdegrove said:

Hi,

Yesterday afternoon I flashed the MEI FW myself being fed up with waiting for the OEM to put it on their support pages for my machine.
It's not something I'd encourage end users to do as you have to know exactly what FW you have as it can't be easily undone.
Still, the flash routine will check if the FW file is the right one, if not it won't go through with it.
The TPM module needed flashing as well and that took some doing before it was finally successful....
Cheers,

When you say "you have to know exactly what FW you have" does that mean what is already installed so you can compare it to the new version or, you need to know for sure that the FW you pick to use is for your application? If the latter, how would you know?

How did you know that you needed a TPM?

Over the years I've followed the mantra "If my machine is working properly and I'm happy that it does what I need it to, I don't need to flash my BIOS". It was something that has been in the back of my mind and trying to avoid all these years, but now it seems that I will have to, but I'm not sure, maybe the two lenovos but I may just leave sleeping dogs lie with the gateway.

As fdegrove said earlier and did make me feel better since I'm small potatoes:

fdegrove said:

Hi,
Possibly. But you have nothing to worry about anyhow. These security flaws are real but the chance of being hacked this way is really one in a billion for private users.

that flash or even just the check would be a big leap for me i'm not that smart (i thought about that to run cclean from afar when i knew she would not be bothered and such) kinda like updates from ms now, but i want to be married for a decade or two more or even longer.

Many Thanks

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that flash or even just the check would be a big leap for me i'm not that smart (i thought about that to run cclean from afar when i knew she would not be bothered and such) kinda like updates from ms now, but i want to be married for a decade or two more or even longer.

Many Thanks

I had to chuckle, through thick and thin my wife and I will be celebrating our 40th next year.

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What is Intel Management Engine Components. I have a Dell Precision Tower 7910 and Laptop Precision 7710. they have the Intel Management Engine Components installed. I am running Win 10. I am not on a corporate network.
The Intel Management...

I can't seem to find this in the Intel Download Center anywhere.
I have an Alienware M14X R1, and the IMEI driver listed on Dell's support website for my model is several years old and severely out of date. Windows Update doesn't seem to have it...

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